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5.0 out of 5 stars
My Book Review, Dec 7 2003
Hello, my name is Jill, and I am 10 years old. As a child, I think this book was great. Hey all of you adults out there, if you're planning to buy a book for your child, this one is it! It is about a girl named Fluff and a boy named Bud. Since their father died they lived with their Aunt Rivette in the country. One day, they traveled to the Kingdom of Nole, and when entering the East Gate, Bud becomes King and Fluff princess. Why, you may ask, does he become king? Well, the old king had died, and according to the law of the land of Nole, the 47th person to enter the east gate would become the king, and all relations to live in the palace. Anyway, Fluff is given a cloak by a fairy, in which you can wish for 1 thing, and soon the cloak gets passed around the royal palace. Meanwhile, in the land of Ix, the witch-queen hears about this cloak, and decides to steal it. She tries many attemps, and finally obtains it. But the cloak does not work if it is stolen, so she leaves it in the forest. Then creatures called Roly-Rouges invade the kingdom of Nole, so Aunt Rivette, Fluff and Bud run to the kingdom of Ix, and the queen gladly helps them. When they go to the forest to look for the cloak, it is not there! Can they find it in time? Read and find out!
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4.0 out of 5 stars
wonderful story, but not so amusing illustrations, Aug 14 2003
this is definitely a whimsical story in my opinion, but the illustrations are a little too reneissance for me but nevertheless it's a wonderfully crafted tale. baum once confided to his son, "queen Zixi i think is my best effort", and i couldn't agree more, besides, what i say is never judge a book by it's cover OR by i'ts illustrations, cause it'll get you nowhere. it tells the story of a magic cloak that is crafted by fairies, and they give it to the first unhappy mortal, and then it leads to many events, some of them happy, some of them sad. and many adventures unfold. this is a great book and if you buy it you'll be glad you did.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
The best of L. Frank Baum's non-Oz children's books, Dec 22 2002
L. Frank Baum considered "Queen Zixi of Ix or the Story of the Magic Cloak" to be the best of his non-Oz fantasies for children and there is certainly no reason to disagree with his self-assessment. The fairies assembled one moonlit night in a pretty clearing of the ancient forest of Burzee to weave the magic cloak. When the old king of Noland dies without any relatives to take the throne a peasant boy named Bud becomes the guy when he is the forty-seventh person to enter the city and the magic cloak that allows wishes to come true becomes very important to him in this 1905 story. Bud has to be king, whether he wants to or not, which means his sister is now Princess Fluff. Dispensing justice and trying to deal with his Aunt Rivette, who feels the new king owes everything he now has to her, are minor problems for King Bud when Queen Zixi and the armies of Ix invade Noland. To make things worse, the magic cloak is stolen. One of the things I like about "Queen Zixi of Ix" is that it sounds like a traditional fairey tale adventures, even more so than the Oz books, in which Baum certainly created his own fantasy universe. More importantly, characters manage to get beyond the limits of their stereotypes with surprising results, which is certainly a laudable thing to do in telling stories to children. Of course, this only cements Baum's reputation in the realm of American children's literature, but then as anybody knows who has gotten beyond "The Wizard of Oz" Baum was deservedly known as Father Goose. Check out Baum's "The Sea Fairies" and "Sky Island" as well if you like this one, which has 90 illustrations on its 231 pages.
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